Stories of Later American History | Page 3

I
PATRICK HENRY
The Last French War had cost England so much that at its close she
was heavily in debt.
"As England must now send to America a standing army of at least ten
thousand men to protect the colonies against the Indians and other
enemies," the King, George III, reasoned, "it is only fair that the
colonists should pay a part of the cost of supporting it."
The English Parliament, being largely made up of the King's friends,
was quite ready to carry out his wishes, and passed a law taxing the
colonists. This law was called the Stamp Act. It provided that
stamps--very much like our postage-stamps, but costing all the way
from one cent to fifty dollars each--should be put upon all the
newspapers and almanacs used by the colonies, and upon all such legal
papers as wills, deeds, and the notes which men give promising to pay
back borrowed money.
[Illustration: George III.]
When news of this act reached the colonists they were angry. "It is
unjust," they said. "Parliament is trying to make slaves of us by forcing
us to pay money without our consent. The charters which the English

King granted to our forefathers when they came to America make us
free men just as much as if we were living in England.
"In England it is the law that no free man shall pay taxes unless they
are levied by his representatives in Parliament. We have no one to
speak for us in Parliament, and so we will not pay any taxes which
Parliament votes. The only taxes we will pay are those voted by our
representatives in our own colonial assemblies."
They were all the more ready to take this stand because for many years
they had bitterly disliked other English laws which were unfair to them.
One of these forbade selling their products to any country but England.
And, of course, if they could sell to no one else, they would have to sell
for what the English merchants chose to pay.
Another law said that the colonists should buy the goods they needed
from no other country than England, and that these goods should be
brought over in English vessels. So in buying as well as in selling they
were at the mercy of the English merchants and the English ship
owners, who could set their own prices.
But even more unjust seemed the law forbidding the manufacture in
America of anything which was manufactured in England. For instance,
iron from American mines had to be sent to England to be made into
useful articles, and then brought back over the sea in English vessels
and sold to the colonists by English merchants at their own price.
Do you wonder that the colonists felt that England was taking an unfair
advantage? You need not be told that these laws were strongly opposed.
In fact, the colonists, thinking them unjust, did not hesitate to break
them. Some, in spite of the laws, shipped their products to other
countries and smuggled the goods they received in exchange; and some
dared make articles of iron, wool, or other raw material, both for their
own use and to sell to others.
"We will not be used as tools for England to make out of us all the
profit she possibly can," they declared. "We are not slaves but free-born
Englishmen, and we refuse to obey laws which shackle us and rob us of

our rights."
So when to these harsh trade laws the Stamp Act was added, great
indignation was aroused. Among those most earnest in opposing the act
was Patrick Henry.
Let us take a look at the early life of this powerful man. He was born in
1736, in Hanover County, Virginia. His father was an able lawyer, and
his mother belonged to a fine old Welsh family.
But Patrick, as a boy, took little interest in anything that seemed to his
older friends worth while. He did not like to study nor to work on his
father's farm. His delight was to wander through the woods, gun in
hand, hunting for game, or to sit on the bank of some stream fishing by
the hour. When not enjoying himself out-of-doors he might be heard
playing his violin.
Of course the neighbors said, "A boy so idle and shiftless will never
amount to anything," and his parents did not know what to do with him.
They put him, when fifteen years old, as clerk into a little country store.
Here he remained for a year, and then opened a store of his own. But he
was still too lazy to attend to business, and soon failed.
[Illustration: Patrick Henry.]
When he was only eighteen years old, he married. The parents of the
young